Imran Khan has his faults; he has had his share of indiscretions, oversights, omissions and faux paus; but which mortal is above such foibles and weaknesses? He who has never committed a sin, should hurl the first stone! He who lays claims to infallibility be our savior and I am ready to swore his allegiance

For quite sometime the political grapevine has been brewing with the news that there might be a covert pact between Zardari and Nawaz Sharif to soften their political punches upon each other so as to mildly join forces leading upto the elections and also in the process counter the political rise of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

The Samjhota “partnership” is exposed by Nawaz Sharif himself during a rally in Dadu, where he desperately tries to pacify the crowd from chanting the “Go-Zardari-Go” slogan, not once, twice but three time and then jokes that we should actually be talking about “Come-Come”

This should be the start of the expose on how the crooks of the status quo are joining hands to take another swing at ruining this country – People of Pakistan stay alert

I am coming to your city to bring everyone together on December 25 at Mazar-e-Quaid for a peace rally. I hope that you can break all the shackles and take part because at this rally we need to make the beginnings of a new Pakistan. I will be waiting. Thank you.

With Imran Khan declaring his assets today, the challenge moves onto Raiwind & other political mafias

Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf [Offical page] has indeed started to change the political ground rules in Pakistan, the status quo parties have a lot to hide and they will run for cover and deflect attention from their own financial issues or produce fake returns to share with the public – they have looted and plundered and when caught the best form of defense is ignore and deflect the questions.

Notice how Ch Nisar focused on the minute details of IK’s assets, but refused to comment on the bank vaults of Raiwind. You will ALSO notice the Sharif’s will not come publicly themselves because if they are caught then its embarrassing, if someone else falters they can send other cronies to clean up the mess, Hanif Abbasi is leading the pack, what an amazing line of defense they have in Raiwind.

It is now public pressure that can differentiate the crooks from credible Pakistanis. Keep asking them the hard questions and dont let them off the hook, let the onus to ask the hard questions NOT be on PTI, but instead the PUBLIC must take these crooks to task

Im getting tired of hearing people accusing PTI of being supported by the “Establishment”.

In my opinion the word Establishment supported party is a word used to stigmatize any rising popular party, for lack of a better explanation as to why it has suddenly become popular, like PTI. People also can’t be blamed since in our past, history has repeatedly shown that popular leaders have had an establishment shadow overlooking their rise to power. But today here, we must understand that there is a genuine wave of frustration that has expressed itself into across the country support for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Imran Khan

In our unfortunate country, which is inherently run by crooks from the likes of Asif Zardari Peoples Party and the “waiting-for-his-turn-to-loot-the-country” Nawaz Sharif, people are not stupid to let this country continue into their hands againContinue reading “PTI and the Establishment Ghost” »

The crowd was pulsating as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) continued to talk about Afro-Asian solidarity. Some of us raised anti-Ayub slogans. ZAB stopped us and said ‘abhi naheen’. He was into the third hour of his first public speech after ditching his mentor and the venue was Government College Lahore. The 60s were an era of healthy debate between the left and the right. My mother insisted that I stop reading comics and novels and she thrust upon a young mind The dialogues of Plato.

I graduated to Maududi, Marx and Engels to understand socialism, religion and the exploitation of man by laissez faire capitalism. Iqbal fired up a passion and pride, and Bhutto’s book The Myth of Independence gave me a nationalist perspective, though I disagreed with his political philosophy. People dislodged Ayub Khan and yours truly still carries a couple of bullets in his right arm as a memento of a people’s struggle gone awry, somewhat like Egypt of today with no real change. Our lot since then has gotten from worse to worst and beyond.

Forty years later I am travelling with Imran Khan from Lahore to Faisalabad for a PTI jalsa. His recent upsurge started from the Peshawar dharna. Karachi was the watershed where people of all ethnicities joined in to make a statement that there is a breath of fresh air in this miserable political arena. Multan was a notch higher and we reached there in time from Lahore despite many receptions on the way.Continue reading “From Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to My Kaptaan – by Dr. Arif Alvi” »

HOT NEWS: Samar Khan is free, al charges have been dropped he is going home

PROTEST For Release of Samar Ali Khan who was standing up against VIP movement of Zulfiqar Mirza – Darakshan Police Station [map] 6pm TODAY

Last night at 11:30pm Architect Samar Ali Khan was arrested on Khy-e-Shamsheer for standing up against the VIP protocol blocking the road for Minister Zulfiqar Ali Mirza. After dropping a fellow architect home after dinner, Samar was proceeding home when at Khayban-e-Shamsheer a road block in front of the house of Minister Zulfiqar Mirza totally irked him, as a very active member of civil society in Karachi Mr. Samar Ali Khan, stepped out of his car and voiced his objection, he was able to walk up to the gate, rang the bell and demanded to speak to the owner [which was Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Mirza. The police escort immediately started pushing him around, naturally things got a little infuriated and a tussle broke out. Samar was arrested and taken to Darakhshan Police Station, where he spent the night and is being taken to court for a hearing, the family has still to know what charges have been levied against him

The PPP cadre and Mr Mirza is pushing the news in the media that he was enraged and out of control attacking, but witnesses say the entire provocation later was by the minister and his guards. A few people who met him barely two hours later at the police station say that Samar was generally ok, no major bruises, a little apologetic to have created all this fuss in the heat of the moment, but there is no doubt he was in high spirits

Either way, ever since Mr. Zulfiqar Mirza has moved onto the house on the main street of Khy-e-Shamsheer two speed breakers have gone up around his house and a convoy of police escort remains surrounding the area ready to block off traffic to allow the free unrestricted movement of the Minister. I personally have been caught up on that street once too many times and it might be possible that a fuse may have sparked within Samar to let it all go.

I feel it is a proud moment, for someone in Pakistan to have the gutts to stand up against this hegemony of VIP movement. Samar Ali Khan, what you did was right, we are proud of you and may this serve as an example for others to challenge this idiotic VVIP movement trend so common of our elected leaders

UPDATE 1: Samar was taken to court embarrassingly draped under a black cloth, the judge was not there so no bail hearing, he has been sent back to Jail for another day

UPDATE 2: A Protest has been organized outside Darakhshan Police Station [map] where he is being held at 6:00pm today [Jun 16th] Show up in numbers to protest against this VIP hegemony and support Samar Ali Khan

UPDATE 3: Talked to Samar on phone just now, he was definitely worried, as he was being treated like a criminal as a black cloth was being draped over his head – have told him to hold the fort and keep his hopes up high, pressure needs to be applied to break the hegemony of Zulfiqar Mirza

UPDATE 4 HOT NEWS: Samar Khan is free, al charges have been dropped he is going home

This article was sent to Dawn in response to Cyril Almeida’s column Talibangate, but was not published, it has more recently been published in The News in a slightly edited version, but the actual rebuttal is reproduced here

Mr Cyril Almeida in his article in Dawn on 19th March, states that Imran Khan has cried hoarse opposing this war against the Taliban. We need to respond to the link being created by such assertions implying that being against this ‘War’ Khan and his party must be supporters of the Taliban. ‘You are either with us or against us’.

PTI is not a supporter of Taliban. Far from it. We condemn the violence perpetrated by Tehrik-e-Taliban or any other group against innocent people and those who murder and slaughter people. However, we also believe that the Taliban label encompasses a lot of others including those who are reacting to US presence in Afghanistan and their sympathizers in Pakistan; those who react also against the Pakistan army and on civilian population because of US presence in Pakistan; the fundamentalists who believe that Sharia should be imposed even against the wishes of the people; those who disillusioned with justice in Pakistan believe imposition of Sharia law will provide Insaf, little realizing that any law in the hands of the present unaccountable bureaucracy will not deliver; those who are affectees of collateral damage and want to take revenge (à la Iraq); those who are sponsored by ‘local’ and ‘outside’ agencies (including India) and finally the fundamentalist who has hijacked all this chaos and suffering. We can go on and on, different groups, even criminals, land and drug mafias which are taking ample advantage of this strife.Continue reading “Imran Khan’s stand on Taliban – War is not the Only Solution” »

Imran Khan was scheduled to arrive in Karachi today aboard a PIA flight from Lahore – but it seems that the Sindh Government feels that he is unwelcome. Protests by PTI workers are being held on Shahrah-e-Faisal and the members are heading towards Karachi Press Club to show their protests.

The question is that why should not a citizens of Pakistan be not allowed to visit other cities?

Might he be right when he accused the government to say its not a government but a mafia

Short selling is a term widely used in financial world and equity markets. In simple words it is promise of selling something which you don’t own actually. Every year many traders gather fortune through short selling. Infect last year half of top 1000 richest of the world were traders and most of that half were short seller, as markets slides.

No business activity or production is involved in short selling. The person acquiring such wealth is sole actor and a ‘beneficiary’. Gain without Pain. Is not it interesting? But more interesting is politics in Pakistan where many have gathered political fortune through political short selling. What it takes is tricks of a ‘smart man’ and how good he is in manipulation. Principals, ethics, a program or political organization to implement such program are meaningless.

Movement for restoration of judiciary started by lawyers was a movement of middle class educated people. Participation of doctors, journalists, teachers and civil society organization made it a popular movement of masses. Ideally, the liberal and middle class political parties are natural allies of such movements. Surprisingly, liberal to left parties with roots in masses like PPP, MQM and ANP decided to stand on other side of a popular movement.Continue reading “Imran Khan’s political ‘short selling’” »